College Academic Policy Partner - Registry

Position Details

School of Academic Services

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,942 to £40,322. With potential progression once in post to £42,792 a year

Grade 7

Full time

Fixed term up to 30th September 2021

Closing Date: 27th October 2019

Job Role

The College Academic Policy Partner (CAPP) influences, supports and (where appropriate) leads the relationship between the Policy and Quality Assurance sub-division of Registry and the College and, in particular, provides advice, guidance and lead support on all academic quality and academic policy matters for the College. Each CAPP will also normally have a core University-wide role for 25% of their time acting as the first point of contact and designing, developing and refining policy/practice in one of the following areas: external examiners; Student Representation System (SRS); programme and module approval; annual review; University legislation and associated guidance.

The CAPP's role is to provide authoritative professional advice and guidance to the College in the development and review of its curriculum and the quality assurance (QA) systems and processes which underpin these. This will be informed by an awareness and understanding of University and external policy and strategy in these areas, and will include leading short- to medium-term College-wide projects that highlight challenges with existing processes and systems, recommending and implementing solutions, and leading on agreed developments.

The CAPP will have 'dotted lines' of responsibility to the Directors of Operations and Education (or designated nominees), and will work closely with Heads of School (or designated nominees) and other senior College and University staff to ensure that the College's (and, where appropriate, University's) quality assurance systems and processes are developed, designed, refined and managed effectively.

The role of the CAPP is to challenge and support the College and thereby to contribute to ensuring that the College's whole portfolio of quality systems and processes is consistent, coherent and compliant with University requirements.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

College QA Processes and Systems

• In collaboration with relevant College colleagues, to lead in the design, development and refining of policies relating to College quality assurance systems and processes (including external examiner appointments and reporting; Staff Student Committees; programme approval, review and modification).

This will include:

• Understanding and responding to the College's structures and strategic priorities;

• Understanding and anticipating the College's needs;

• identifying problems (such as areas of University policy or strategy which require implementation within the College) and recommending and developing solutions;

• monitoring the effectiveness of local policies and processes;

• Identifying and sharing (e.g. through the CAPPs team) processes or practices worthy of wider dissemination.

• To identify risk arising from a range of quality assurance data, such as external examiner reports, annual review reports, Staff Student Committee reports, complaints, appeals and OIA cases. To make recommendations on mitigating risks and develop a plan to address issues, and to lead on this with relevant College colleagues to address issues in a timely and effective manner.

• To provide authoritative specialist and professional policy- and quality assurance-related advice and guidance to the College Quality Assurance and Approval Committee and Education Committee, or equivalents, both individually to members (in particular, the Director and Deputy Director of Education or equivalents) and collectively to those committees to support and influence decision-making at a senior level.

Curriculum Development & Review

• With other relevant business partners, to provide specialist professional advice and guidance within the College to enable the development of market-led curriculum proposals that adds value to the College's existing portfolio.

• To provide specialist support to the College to enable the requirements of the annual review process to be implemented efficiently and effectively, actively scheduling in order to meet University timeframes.

• With relevant College colleagues and other business partners, to provide day-to-day monitoring of, and lead projects to ensure, the completion of actions arising from reviews, flagging issues as they arise to relevant colleagues for action.

Compliance

• To provide authoritative specialist and professional advice and guidance to the College to ensure that quality assurance systems and processes are fit for purpose and align with University Regulations, Codes of Practice, Policies and procedures, and with strategic directives. This will involve leading or supporting short to medium term College-wide projects that identify irregularities with existing processes and systems and propose recommendations and improvements to both College and University policy, and working with College colleagues to plan and implement recommendations in a timely manner.

• To review existing information, propose recommendations and work with the College to ensure that the information provided to current students within the College is consistent and aligns with University Regulations, Codes of Practice and procedures.

• Where relevant, to provide support by being in attendance at School Boards of Examiners meetings and other relevant committees or groups, for example Extenuating Circumstances Panels.

• To provide support and guidance to Schools within the College when they undergo the range of review mechanisms, including Collaborative Provision Reviews and the VC Integrated Review.

Corporate Support

• To act as the first point of contact and designing, developing and refining University-wide policy/practice in reference to good national practice in one of the following areas:

• External examiner system;

• Student Representation System (SRS);

• Programme and module approval;

• Annual review;

• University legislation and associated guidance

• Developing policy/practice in one of these areas is likely to include using expert knowledge to review issues and/or drivers for change, consulting with colleagues both internal and external to the University, using strong negotiation and persuasion skills and providing authoritative, supportive advice to a wide range of colleagues.

• As appropriate, to act as Academic Policy Partner for academic provision that falls within one or more Corporate Services.

• Any other duties, as requested by the Head of Academic Policy Partners, the Assistant Director (Policy and Quality Assurance) or the Director of Registry. This is likely to include participation in degree congregations and providing professional secretariat support to University working groups, reviews or committees as appropriate.

Person Specification

• A good degree, with a good understanding of the external environmental factors affecting the HE sector, and a Research-intensive civic University in particular.

• Proven ability to work with senior managers, within College and central University management and both academic and administrative.

• A high degree of personal accountability and the ability to influence and win support for policy proposals from key senior decision makers through well-developed influencing and negotiating skills.

• Proven ability to design and implement improvements to systems and processes that use existing best practice, and then refine those as necessary to ensure they remain fit for purpose.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including excellent interpersonal skills; the ability to communicate complex messages to non-experts.

• Sound understanding of how large complex organisations operate, and the implications for quality assurance.

• Experience of translating University academic and student related Codes of Practice, regulations and procedures into operation, and sensitivity to the competing demands and viewpoints of stakeholders in this process.

• Demonstrable ability to pro-actively manage own workload, plan effectively, balance competing priorities and work to deadlines.

• Experience of liaising or coordinating activities across a complex, multi-disciplinary academic unit.

• Excellent IT skills, including relevant experience of Microsoft office packages. Aptitude for learning new packages to support analysis and presentation of information.

• Excellent analytical, review and interpretation skills of both narrative and numerical data.

• The ability to work in and lead teams effectively; to collaborate with a wide range of people across the University, and to lead and manage short to medium term projects that have a pan-University significance.

• Initiative, imagination, tenacity and self-confidence

For informal inquiries please contact Andreas Constantinou - a.k.constantinou@bham.ac.uk

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity at The University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community'